Star Wars Rumors Attach Simon Pegg, Alfonso Cuaron To Future Films

UPDATE: In practically no time Simon Pegg has tweeted to debunk the rumor of his attachment. Given how fuzzy the rumor was to begin with this doesn't surprise us... and we won't be surprised if he winds up in the movie after all, either.

Now that J.J. Abrams has slid into place as the director of Star Wars: Episode VII, we’re kind of been in a holding pattern with regards to additional news. We’re left sifting through rumors and half-truths until Abrams can put his Star Trek sequel to bed and shift gears into Star Wars. But when you hear the same names over and over, you begin to suspect that there’s truth to the hearsay, and so it’s safe – or safer than usual – to report.

The Web site MarketSaw has two juicy names it’s trying to attach to the Star Wars universe. The blog says Children of Men director Alfonso Cuaron, who’s still putting the finishing touches on his sci-fi thriller Gravity, could be circling Episode VIII and, possibly, Episode IX. Now, who wouldn’t want Cuaron in the director’s chair for a series of Star Wars movies? He’d be a fantastic choice for any of the new trilogy chapters, or even a standalone spinoff, which MarketSaw says “will fill and expand the voids in between in multiple timelines [of the new trilogy], and have potential to then be franchised themselves in regards to the worlds they open up.”

And that’s not all. MarketSaw's source tosses Simon Pegg’s name back into the fire, saying they “can't say why, but let’s just say I have a strong feeling about that.” Again, we’ve heard Pegg’s name before, but mainly just because it’s easy to connect the dots to the actor – who is part of Abrams’ Trek universe and also a major, self-proclaimed Star Wars fanatic. But nothing, at this point, has been confirmed by anyone in the know, and so it all has to be treated as major, major rumor … for now.

How legit is MarketSaw? Well, at one point, the site broke the news that Prometheus would have ties to Sir Ridley Scott’s Alien movie, with a space jockey appearance at some point. They also wrote a story years ago about plans for a third Star Wars trilogy … and that’s coming true. But, like all sites, they went out on a limb once and missed, claiming that Tom Hooper’s Les Miserables would be shot in 3D. So sometimes they’re right, and sometimes they’re wrong. But they could be on point with Cuaron and Pegg. We shall see.